Check Yourself Quiz 15Check what you have learned from Grammar Lessons 25-27 and Phrasebook Topic 17 with this 15 minute quiz.

Test 6Check what you have learned from Grammar Lessons 22-27 and Phrasebook Topic 17.

Грамматика
Denoting an Indirect Object. The Dative Case

1.

Uses of the Dative Case. Introduction

The Dative Case is used to indicate a receiver of the action of a verb. It is
used for indirect objects. An indirect object is a person to whom or for whom
an action is done. Study the following example:

1. Я хочу купить Тане книгу.

1. I want to buy Tanya a book.

The book, the thing being given, is the direct object; it is in the Accusative
(answers the question what?). Tanya, the person for whom the book is intended,
is the indirect object (the word Tanya is in the Dative case).

In English, the indirect object answers the two-word question to whom?
or for whom? asked after the verb. More examples:

2. Я пишу письмо другу.

2. I am writing my friend a letter.

3. Она купила подарок сестре.

3. She bought her sister a gift.

Note that in the English sentences above the words "to" or "for" do not appear.
But we can rewrite these sentences inserting to and for without changing their
meaning. Compare:

1. I want to buy a book for Tanya.
2. I am writing a letter to my friend.
3. She bought a gift for her sister.

As the examples above show, the indirect objects can be expressed in two
different ways in English:

with the indirect object before the direct object:

I want to buy Tanya a book;

with the indirect object after the direct object as part of a prepositional
phrase with the preposition to or for :

I want to buy a book for Tanya.

In Russian, when a sentence has both a direct object and an indirect
object their order is not fixed. Case endings enable us to distinguish the
direct object from the indirect object. Compare and analyze two nouns used in
the following sentence:

The Dative Case is also used to designate the indirect object of certain
intransitive verbs (i.e. verbs which do not take a direct object) and for
objects of some prepositions. These uses will be discussed latter on.

2. The Dative Case of Nouns (Formation of Singular and Plural Forms)

The Dative case of nouns is
formed from the Nominative case. Study the formation of the DativeCase of nouns: